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Breastfeeding Passenger Says She Was Told To ‘Cover-Up’ By Flight Attendants

A mother who was breastfeeding on a Delta Airlines flight is demanding an apology after two flight attendants approached her to “cover up” as she nursed her 1-year-old son. (credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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Tallahassee, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – A mother who was breastfeeding on a Delta Airlines flight is demanding an apology after she says two flight attendants approached her to “cover up” as she nursed her 1-year-old son.

Casey Yu was on-board a flight from Atlanta to Tallahassee when she says she was targeted by two flight attendants for breastfeeding her son, Will, WTXL-TV reports.

”He (Will) was indicating he was hungry and wanted to nurse, so I unlatched my bra strap, I turned him toward me and had him facing me,” Yu told WTXL. “He’s nursing and getting ready to sleep.”

However, due to apparent complaints from other passengers, Yu said she noticed that “there was nobody sitting next to me, or us,” and then a female flight attendant approached her.

”She was walking toward me, opening up a plastic bag that had a blanket in it,” said Yu. “She pulled it out and said, ‘Here, this is for you’. I asked what it was for because I didn’t ask for a blanket and she said it was ‘for you to cover up while you’re nursing.’ I said I don’t need that, thank you. She said, ‘Well, we’re getting complaints about this.’”

Yu says Will is her third child, and that she has breastfed all of them on-board planes numerous times.

“I was stunned about this. I was like are you kidding me?” said Yu.

Moments later, a second flight attendant approached her and Will.

“He was really aggressive,” Yu said. “He leaned over me while I was nursing and said I’m going to need you to cover up. I said no, I’m not covering up. I’m not doing anything wrong. It’s within my rights as a mom who is breastfeeding to feed my baby where I need to.”

I have never been so disrespected before in my life. Male FA said I was showing people (WHO??) my entire front side. #feedwill

Yu took to Twitter, posting: “My baby and I decide when to nurse. MY BODY, not yours.”

According to Delta Airlines policy, the airline “fully supports a woman’s right to breastfeed on board Delta and Delta connection aircraft and Delta facilities.”

Upon landing in Florida, Yu says she approached the two flight attendants and was promptly issued an apology from the captain. But the flight attendants had changed their stories at this point, says Yu.

“The female flight attendant said, ‘I never said there was a complaint, I gave this to you out of your own comfort to cover up,’” Yu told WTXL. “If that were the case then why did you have somebody else come back and tell me to cover up?”

Delta has since reached out to Yu offering an apology and a full refund, but Yu says the lesson and the story is for people not to be judgmental of breastfeeding anywhere.

”I want all moms to know they can feed their babies however they want, whatever they want,” Yu said. “If they feel covering is comfortable then that is awesome.”